As maps emerge as the front door to many of our digital experiences, businesses are vying to be the first app you open—the same way that Microsoft and Yahoo once fought Google to own search. “Everybody's always fighting to become the entry point for everything you do,” says Luc Vincent, who helped pioneer Street View at Google and now runs Lyft’s mapping and marketplace division. Now that entry point seems primed to become a map.

I do think it's fascinating how often I open my phone just to go to maps. It may not be the first app I open in the morning, but it's clearly the app I open most often throughout a day with an intent to do something (beyond perhaps the web browser itself for search)-- and yes, increasingly that's to search. Just imagine what other types of things and experiences you could layer in here...